Can we have a serif with this stupid scandal

Silly faux scandal of the day is the GOP freakout over the White House calligrapher. This is a side outrage to the shutting of the White House tours the GOPers have been wildly howling about all over the intertoobz.

[T]he “Chief Calligrapher,” Patricia A. Blair, who has an annual salary of $96,725, and her two deputies, Debra S. Brown, who gets paid $85,953 per year, and Richard T. Muffler, who gets paid $94,372 every year.

No idea what the going rate for high quality calligraphy is these days, but with all the White House formal functions that happen in any given year, I'm certain they work for the money. And it's not an easy art form to master. One might assume these are the best of the best.

In any event, it's a long standing position in the White House. And Blair wasn't hired by Obama anyway.

Oh: It’s probably worth noting that President Obama didn’t open the Graphics and Calligraphy Office and staff it with his Chicago cronies. Here’s a C-SPAN “Tour of the White House Calligraphy Office” from the Bush administration; Blair was heading it back then, too. I haven’t been able to figure out when it first opened but someone has been hand-writing White House invitations since at least the John Adams administration.

My own useless GOP Senator was pushing this fauxtroversy on the Twitter this morning. Paraphrase: OMG, there's 3,500 North Carolinians who won't be able to tour the White House this year. Think of the poor tourists.

I rememinded him there are almost 450,000 unemployed people in this lovely state who couldn't afford a trip to DC at all. Asked Mr. Burr why he doesn't something to raise revenue and improve the economy so they could find jobs. Of course, he didn't answer me. He never does.